Finland

FINLAND - THE JEWISH COMMUNITY

 

The Jewish Community of Finland [October 2000]: 

http://www.jewishgen.org/Scandinavia/finland.htm [February 2001]

Helsinki Jewish Community: from abroad +358-9-586 0310 (358) and from Finland 09-586 0310

Turku Jewish Community: from abroad +358-2-231 2557, from Finland 02-231 2557

"Chevra Kadisha - Founded in 1864, the Chevra Kadisha is the Community's oldest organisation. The society deals with all work connected with deaths in the community and takes care of the two Jewish cemeteries in Helsinki." Source

Tapani Harviainen writes about the origin of the Jews of Finland: "From which parts of Russia were the Jewish soldiers sent to Helsinki [most Jewish families in Finland have their origin in Russian Jewish soldiers granted permission to settle in the country after completing their military service in the Russian army bases in Finland. Finland was a semi-autonomous part of the Russian empire in the years 1809-1917. / J.B.]

The Helsinki police archives offer a clear answer to this question. All Jews resident in Helsinki in 1898 had come from Russia that at that time included the greater part of Poland . According to the archives the most important "home towns" or the localities and districts where the heads of the families had been registered before their arrival in Finland were

(1) Schlosselburg (now Petrokrepost) east of St. Petersburg, above the River Neva,

(2) governments of Novgorod and Tver,

(3) Lithuania and the north-eastern parts of Poland. A surprising element in this information is that Schlosselburg, Novgorod and Tver were all outside the Pale of Settlement where Jews were allowed to reside. Equally surprising is the almost total absence of Estonia and Latvia in the domicile registers."